I only recently heard this term and when I heard it, I swear I thought someone had sneezed! A Pikermi? What the heck is that?

Apparently there is a new movement to start calling the half marathon race distance a “Pikermi.” I am really not sure how I feel about this. Personally, I am not all that offended by the 13.1 mile distance being called a half marathon and I think Pikermi sounds a little silly. It just does not seem to roll off the tip of the tongue for me. Some runners, however, feel that some sense of accomplishment is lost when you call a race a “half” of something else ... like it is not quite as good or it that it loses some of its luster.

I have also noticed this trend of calling marathons “marys” and half marathons “half marys.” Again, I do not necessarily like these new terms. I mean, I am not this staunch opponent of them, and if other people want to call them that, that’s fine, but I just feel weird saying, “WHEW! I just set a PR on a half mary!”

katieRUNSthis

For some reason, “half mary” makes me think of a “hail mary” in football ... which I realize is a completely different thing, but it just the first place my brain goes when I hear “half mary”. Plus, when I run a half marathon, I like having that word “marathon” in there. I won’t lie ... It makes me feel good. And to non-runners, throwing the word “marathon” in there always makes people say, “Oooooh.” :)

If we are going to start giving each race distance its own special name, what the heck are we supposed to do with ultramarathons? Technically, an ultramarathon is anything more than the 26.2 mile marathon race distance. However, ultramarathon races typically cover any distance from a 50k and more. Common ultramarathon distances are 50k, 50-milers, 100k, and 100-milers, but there are definitely race distances beyond that. All I know is that if special names are designated for all of these distances, I will never be able to remember them.

How do you feel about these new race distance name suggestions? Should the 13.1 race distance get its own name? After all, we don’t call a 5k race a “half 10k,” but should we?